The Bullet Meant For Her
by ClassynSassy
Summary: One shot shattered Ziva's entire world. Tony took the bullet for her. I don't own any of the characters of NCIS, bla, bla, bla. Please give me your Reviews, I value them. Sorry for the story


**The Bullet Meant for Her**

He laid on the autopsy table, cold and lifeless. Every time she looked at him she would turn away, close her eyes, and pray that this was all a dream. Then she would open her eyes and he would still be there and her heart would break all over again.

It was her fault she was dead. He'd taken the bullet for her; she should be lying on the table. She wouldn't let anyone talk to her, comfort her; she would just walk away or block them out. She didn't say a word until his funeral, two weeks later.

Many people came to Tony's funeral; most of them were people she didn't even know. Anyone was able to walk up front and say something about him in loving memory. Ziva went last. She had sobbed through the whole thing. She hadn't bothered to put makeup on; it would just run down her face. She walked up front of everyone trying to say something coherent.

"Tony was a great man. He was more than a partner, more than a friend. He stopped the bullet meant for me and I loved him. I never got the chance to tell him, and I never will." She ran off the platform. Gibbs, McGee, Abby, and Ducky watched her go, knowing she would never be the same.

Days and weeks past after Tony's death. Ziva grew more and more distant and alone. She visited his grave every day and wept. She'd talk to him about nothing and everything. She would tell him she loved him and missed him. Then she would weep again. She talked more to her gravestone than everyone else combined.

One day, two weeks after he'd passed, Tony's Will was found, and Ziva was in it. She waited with all her coworkers as the items were handed out. They were little things with big meanings.

McGee got Tony's book, the only one he had owned, _How to deal and Get with Women 101_.

Abby got his photo albums of the team, and a special package of all the things she could blackmail McGee with.

Ducky got all of Tony's documentaries about one thing or another.

Gibbs got a thank you note.

And Ziva, she got his whole movie collection. The lawyer said she'd have to pick them up, but Ziva was given one movie in advanced. The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. It was an odd thing to leave someone and it made Ziva smile.

The whole team was relieved to see it. She hadn't smiled since Tony's death. Ziva went home immediately and put the movie in her VCR. She found that the movie was already to a certain point. Tony always rewound his movies, no matter what. It started with the song, 'we are one.' There had also been a note taped to the inside of the case. As Ziva sat down on her couch she read it, and cried.

Dear Ziva,

You are my other half. We are one. I love you and not just as a friend or a partner, but as a soulmate. You asked me once if I believed in them. I never had, until I met you.

Yours Always,

Tony

Ziva cried herself to sleep that night and first thing in the morning she visited his grave and sobbed. Why couldn't he have told her before? She knew the answer because it was the same as hers. He didn't want to risk their friendship, it meant too much. But, she thought to herself, we could have been married and had kids.

Had kids! Her mind shouted, she could still have his. She said goodbye to Tony as she ran to her car. She remembered he had donated sperm to a bank before he died. All hope was not yet lost.

She still visited Tony's grave over the next two months. "I'm going to tell them today." She whispered before she left.

As she arrived at work, she asked everyone to meet down in Abby's lab. It was a pleasant surprise for her team to hear more out of Ziva than a mumble or a few weak words. Ziva smiled at them all. Her first real and true smile in weeks. "I'm pregnant." she said without preamble. "And Tony is the father."

They all smiled wider as Abby squealed. Gibbs said in a smiling voice, "If he were here I'd give him a slap on the back of the head."

Over the next seven months Ziva enjoyed being pregnant with Tony's child. She was still depressed though and nothing about that changed. Her life without him was still empty. The day she went into labor, Abby was with her. Abby rushed Ziva to the hospital as she informed the others.

Ziva endured a long hard labor and would never have gotten through it without Tony. On her first contraction, she had told Abby to read Tony's letter to her over and over again. Abby cried as she read his words. They meant everything to Ziva.

She was weak and dying from the labor, when she held her son for the first and only time. "Anthony Ari DiNozzo." She told Abby as she reached for the note in her hand.

Just as her team, her family, walked in, she said, "Goodbye." And her eyelids fell shut.

People say that Ziva David died in childbirth, but those who knew her well, knew she died of a broken heart.


End file.
